A brief-yet-ongoing journal of all things Carmi. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll reach for your mouse to click back to Google. But you'll be intrigued. And you'll feel compelled to return following your next bowl of oatmeal. With brown sugar. And milk.

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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Wordless Wednesday - Automotive reflection

Drop topLondon, ON, March 2009 [Click to enlarge]

About this photo: We're rounding out our most recent Thematic Photographic theme, reflective. Feel free to add your own. The new theme hits the blog tomorrow at 7 p.m. What's it going to be? Scroll down to find out.

The '70s won't go down as a high water mark in the automotive industry. Strangled by soaring energy prices and tightening regulatory requirements, domestic automakers struggled to stay afloat. Hmm, sounds familiar.

This period is often called the "Malaise Era", and it produced a string of forgettable excuses for transportation. I'd argue that this car, a '75 Buick LeSabre convertible, would not be among them. It was, at least temporarily, the last of its kind as Detroit soon got out of the convertible business for a while. And as it loomed in the parking lot, my daughter and I stopped to admire this piece of thoughtfully restored rolling history.

Your turn: A car you remember...why is it significant to you?

Next up in Thematic Photographic: The theme for next week will be...

Edible

Please start thinking about what you'd like to share, and come on back after 7 p.m. Wednesday to participate.

17 comments:

An English view so you may not have heard of many of these... and a difficult one to pick as there were so many cars I liked throughout my childhood, teens and twenties; and some I was even fortunate enough to own... so the earliest great car was an Alvis open tourer with dicky seats in a pale silver blue owned by the market gardener where we used to buy vegtables and fruit further up our road... my first car was a grey Wolseley 1550, a 1950s car with wood, leather, old fashioned radio, and I think octagonal dials... I wanted and nearly bought an E-type Jaguar but fuel prices rocketed... Owned a 1969 Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV, in red ~ terrific when in tune but otherwise... ... A Beetle(a bright orange 'high powered' special one)... A Mercedes C Class estate (reliable and comfortable)and a Mercedes ML 270 4X4 (comfortable, powerful and expensive to run)... A Volvo V70 turbo estate (very fast, very powerful and extremely comfortable) ...and many others. But which stands out... well I'd be greedy (there is a reason) and say either one of the Alfa coupes or an 1960s Jaguar 3.4S or XK150... with the proviso of a Mercedes for the many days when the Jag or Alfa decided to be tempremental and a BMW R1200 GS motorbike for the oodd sunny day when you feel like riding to South Africa or round the world a couple of times! But hey! This is a money is no object wish so yes the Alfa or Jag would be 'perfectly restored, totally reliable and rerady for me on the starting line for the Mille Milga.

Love the shot, Carmi. Funny what becomes classic in later years, isn't it?

A car and memories? Goodness, there are far too many to come up with merely one. Cars were always been a big part of my life. I grew up in the garage with my dad; helped him rebuild a Willy's pickup from the frame up. I learned a lot about tools and soldering and cars and such as a young girl. He taught me to change a tire when I was 11. I was one of 2 or 3 girls who took auto in high school. I had three different cars before I turned 18, fourteen to date. My favorites? 65 Impala convertible, 71 Corvette, 70 Datsun 240Z, and the 80 Jeep CJ8 (Scrambler).

Oh how I wish I had a scanner that worked - I would have a weeks worth of wonderful memories to post in photos! All time favorite - black 79 Trans Am with a blue bird on the hood. That car was saaweet! :-)

My high school boyfriend had a 1928 Pontiac sedan, painted in Royal Plum with cream pinstriping. It had plum corduroy upholstery and riding in it, sitting high above the street, I was queen of the block!!

Ancient history…going way way back to early childhood, a faded pink, Mercury I think, of my Moms in the back yard that wasn’t being driven. We used to climb on and play in. And a Studebaker my sister fell out of going around a corner (slowly, still… OWww)

I remember different cars for different reasons, my 1964 VW Beetle because it was my first car, my 1974 Austin Marina because it was kinda quirky (read always broken), my 1969 Pontiac GTO convertible because it was the only (a) convertible and (b) hot rod I ever owned, my 1975 Malibu Classic because it was The Thing That Wouldn't Die, my 1976 Capri II V-6 because ... well just because. I remember events in my life largely from associating either the popular music of the period or the car I was driving with them (or both), so even my 1968 Dodge Coronet station wagon has more than a few memories attached to it. The 1980 Subaru Brat I totaled stands out because the stereo took me half a day to install and half an hour to salvage (it was the only thing I did salvage!). The 1980 Datsun 200SX lives in memory because of two frigid mornings spent removing and subsequently rebuilding the rear brake calipers. The 1979 Chevy LUV was my first pickup and only new vehicle and ultimately paid for both the Malibu and the GTO when I sold it. An '82 Subaru 4WD station wagon that I bought for my first wife, a '90 Dodge Caravan bought for my second both have... ahem... "history". And a couple of 1988 Nissans (A Sentra 2-door and a Stanza Wagon) got me around for years. And while it's not actually a car, my 1976 Yamaha RD400 has a soft corner as well. (It would have to. You can't know any other machine as intimately as an old 2-stroke motorcycle. Because I spent the work week getting me to work and back and the weekends in pieces in my driveway while I fixed the latest malady. Pretty typical from what I understand.)

And I suppose that when my current 2002 Dodge Dakota Quad Cab has moved on to another home or the great beyond, I'll have fond memories of it as well. Probably associated mainly with photo hunting with the Tonka Unit.

So the next item up for bids is "Edible" huh? And no, it didn't escape me that this theme comes just in time for Passover, when that's the nicest thing I can think of to say about the food. Hope you and yours have a great one -- and don't forget the horseradish! (You'll need it for the gefilte fish.)

It was a Mk1 Vauxhall Astra, beige with a 1.6 engine. Quite a decent amount of power for its size. It managed to get me through university. Loud and crude and simple (especially compared to modern cars) but it got the job done, including things like having about £600 worth of sweeties and coke cans in the back.

I think its significance comes in it giving me independence - I could use it to get to uni and back without needing to depend on the parents to ferry me around.

for some reason you Wordless entry makes me think of a Harlequin Romance Novel.... (go figure?)

As for the problem with the deer? Poor little creatures, they're just doing what comes naturally. I'd prefer to see them be relocated, but half of them would get killed or injured in that process, too.